Redux: The Extreme
by CeruleanSlane
Summary: Ax and the Animorphs have been in some dangerous situations before, but they've never experienced danger like this.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

My name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.

My human friends call me Ax, as they claim that it is a difficult name to remember. However, I cannot truly comprehend how you may remember such a bewildering human name as Susannah or Benjamin, yet have trouble with the very simple Aximili.

Regardless, there are two very important things that you should be told right away. The first is that I am an Andalite, what you would call an alien, though to me, you are the alien. I am quite ordinary so far as Andalite males are concerned. I have a strong tail, all four of my legs are sturdy, and my eyestalks have full range of motion.

I have now been told I should endeavor to explain better. That seems more than a bit strange, because if you are reading this, you clearly should have read everything that came before. Because what being in their right mind would begin reading such an extensive account over two dozen volumes in? If you have no idea what is happening, let me remind you that the human counting system begins with the number one, not the number twenty-five. Please go back and read this volume when appropriate.

The other thing that you should be told, so that you have an understanding of my own point of view, is that human beings are quite clearly the most baffling species in the universe.

As part of my endeavor to understand Earth culture, my human friends often took me to places where they claimed humans spent much of their recreational or learning time. I always went in human morph, of course. If I have learned anything since my arrival on Earth, it is that humans are as panicky a species as they are a baffling one. When creatures become panicked, they either run or they fight. The same is true of entire species. When a species is afraid, some run away, others fight.

Humanity as a species is as yet incapable of intergalactic spaceflight. Running would be out of the question. And by now, I was fairly certain that I knew what would happen if humanity felt cornered. There is a reason the Yeerks are keeping their invasion secret. What humanity lacks in technology for warfare, they make up for with enthusiasm.

A good example to prove my point of humanity's absurdity, for example, was the activity I was witnessing at this moment on this most recent educational outing.

"I do not understand-stand-stuh stand and and anduh duh I amuh standing stand here standing." Human mouth sounds are the second most pleasing things I have found that a mouth could be used for. It was difficult to resist playing with them. "Did your species at some point engage in battle with very small warriors who lined up in such a formation?"

Jake, the leader of our little band, blinked at me. His mouth opened and then shut again, and his head tilted while one side of his face seemed to twitch. I have become quite adept at reading human facial expressions. This, I believed, meant that he was trying very hard not to laugh.

"No." He finally managed, though he had to wave at the others to ask for help.

"It's called bowling, Ax-Man." Marco was laying back one of the small plastic seats with his legs hanging off the end. "It's not battle training, it's a game. We're not preparing for war over here."

"Someone should probably tell Rachel that." Tobias observed. My nephew (it is a thoroughly exhausting story that you should already know) was also here in his human morph, though I do not believe that his legitimate form of a hawk would frighten the humans nearly as much as mine would. Still, my friends insisted that human morph was better in both of our cases.

His words were almost immediately echoed by a shrill human cry of triumph. "Yes! Another strike, that's five, count 'em five in a row! In your face, I am the pins worst nightmare. I will shake 'em, knock 'em, break 'em and run them right the hell over. I am the Genghis Khan of bowling pins, whoo!"

"Rachel," Jake was gazing at the yellow-haired female, his cousin, as she held both arms high in the air and bounced up and down while turning in a circular motion in the middle of the raised wooden area she had rolled the ball from, "what happened to not attracting attention while we have Ax here?"

She stuck her tongue out at him, a human expression I've come to realize is shorthand for 'I disagree with you but do not have the factual evidence to back me up', and came back to the sitting area. "Like anyone's going to notice Ax when I'm busy being completely awesome. Are you even seeing what I'm pulling off up there? 'Lissa, chip me." She sat next to the other female in our group. By the simplest descriptions, the two females were similar. Both had similar hair, though Rachel's was much darker while Melissa's was more white than it was yellow. She was also smaller than Rachel, smaller than Marco even, who had been the shortest member before Melissa joined.

Also, Melissa was not, by nature, a soldier. She had become a part of this war by necessity, not because it was something that she had longed for. Rachel… had she been born among my people, as an Andalite, I believe that Rachel would have become one of our greatest warriors.

As Rachel turned toward the other girl, Melissa dragged one of her few remaining nacho chips through the cheese in the corner of the container and put it into Rachel's mouth.

"We saw." Marco put in. "And heard. Oh boy did we hear, oh Genghis Of Bowling."

"Getting nervous, Marco?" Rachel showed her white teeth as she smiled. "You could always forfeit now and save yourself the shame."

Tobias stepped behind the bench where both girls were seated and put his hand on Rachel's shoulder. In response, her head tilted until her cheek lay against the back of his hand. The two of them had begun what I am told humans call 'dating' several weeks earlier, which had led to many such scenarios as this. My friends had offered to explain it several times, but I always declined. This, of all things, was not something that I needed explained. Human courtship may be different from Andalites, but it is still recognizable for what it is.

"What'd you guys end up betting anyway?" Tobias asked.

It was Melissa who answered him. "If Marco gets a higher score, Rachel has to wear a shirt that he made to school."

"Tell him what the shirt says on it." Marco had sat up by this point, to give Jake a place to sit down.

"Marco is awesome, cute, funny, and brilliant." Melissa intoned. Then her face turned color slightly. I have grown to recognize the pink shade as an expression of embarrassment. "I mean, that's what the shirt says. And it has his phone number on it."

"I still feel sorry for whatever poor soul you conned into having that printed onto a shirt for you." Jake put in, shaking his head.

Tobias chuckled. "What I can't believe is that Rachel agreed to any circumstances in which she would wear it."

"Oh please." Rachel shook her head. "As if he has any chance of winning. It was worth the risk. Tell them what Marco has to do when I beat the pants off him."

"If-" Melissa started, before coughing while glancing at the other girl. "Uh, I mean when Rachel wins, Marco has to babysit Sara the next six times her mom goes on a date."

I practically tripped over my own clumsy human feet (And really, a species with two feet and no tail? Again, humans are absurd.) in my attempt to spin back toward the girls. "What kind of tradition-trah-truh-trudition trush trush trushing trashing dition is that?!" I demanded. The horror I felt at such a claim very nearly outweighed all the amusement the sound 'shing' provided. Nearly.

Melissa's eyes were wide as she stared at me, clearly not understanding my dismay. "What tradition?"

"This sitting on babies." I was looking to each of my friends in turn, waiting for someone to share my outrage. Instead, they all began to laugh. Marco laughed so hard he fell off the bench.

"No no no no no." Melissa's head shook rapidly. "Babysitting doesn't mean really sitting on babies. A babysitter is someone who watches over someone else's kid who's too young to take care of themselves so they can do something else like go to dinner or a movie without leaving the child by themselves."

"It's irrelevant anyway." Rachel pointed out. "Sara is way more mature than Marco. She'd be the one taking care of him. But mom still insists that someone at least our age be in the house. And I'd rather not be stuck there every other night just because she's decided to get all match dot com on us. Trust me, if she'd just trust Jordan to do it, I would've gone for the cash bet."

Tobias moved to sit next to Rachel, who scooted over closer to Melissa to give him room. Melissa, in turn, quickly stood up. "I need more nachos." She shook the empty box and then tossed it away into the large plastic cylinder I had been rather insistently told not retrieve items from no matter how good they smelled.

"I will go with you." I started to say. "For more nachos-chose-I chose choose nach choo choo chose."

I had not previously been aware that a human being's eyes could grow as wide as Melissa's did in that moment. "Nothat'sokayI'vegotityoushouldtakeyourturn." Her words came out all in a rush, and she was already hurrying away.

"She must be very hungry." I decided.

"Sure, Ax." Marco had picked himself up off the floor by that point. "That's totally why she's practically sprinting away from you. Couldn't have anything to do with what happened to the first nachos you had. You know, for the six and a half seconds they survived."

"Yeah, dude." Tobias had settled next to Rachel by that point. "You even ate the box they came in."

Before I could object, Jake was pointing. "Either way, Melissa's right. It's your turn again, Ax. And this time, try to do what Rachel did instead of… whatever it is you were doing before. You nearly took Marco's head off."

"The ball is heavier than I had anticipated." I admitted. "It is not a mistake I will make again."

"Yeah, well," Marco grumbled, "fifth times the charm, I suppose. If it's all the same, I'm still taking cover."

I found the ball that I had been using and tested its weight once more. Then I focused on the arrangement of pins and stepped up onto the wooden stage. This time, I was sure that I had the idea. I had watched the others and seen what to do. I would not fail to knock any pins over for a fifth time. I also wouldn't fall over while throwing the ball. Human bodies are, again, absurd.

For a few moments, I checked the arrangement of my human feet, settled my hands into position on the ball, and tried to remember exactly how Rachel had moved. Two steps, then another two steps, then the arm with the ball came back, and then it went forward and the ball came away toward the bulkhead of the ship.

Wait a minute, bulkhead of the ship?

The bowling ball clanged off the metal wall, and I realized belatedly that I was back in my Andalite body. Having all four hooves firmly planted did ease my concern somewhat, I had to admit. But the confusion remained. Somehow, I was standing in the middle of what looked like a heavily damaged ship corridor, with random components literally sticking out of the walls or hanging from the ceiling. Nothing was sparking and I couldn't hear any venting air, so this area seemed safe enough for the moment.

"Okay, what just happened?!" Rachel's voice demanded, and I turned one eyestalk that way to see my human friends standing just down the corridor. Tobias was a hawk once more, and perched with his talons around a rounded beam that emerged from the wall. Even Melissa was there, complete with nachos. They all looked just as confused as I felt, if not more so.

(We appear to have been brought aboard a damaged ship.) I told them, pacing back that way.

"Ax," Jake said, rather tensely. "Do not tell me that the Yeerks just picked us up."

(No.) I shook my head. (This is a damaged Andalite ship if I am not mistaken. And in any case, I do not see why the Yeerks would take us aboard a damaged ship in the first place. They are not as technologically adept as Andalites, but they are not Skrit'Na.)

"What's a Skrit-" Melissa started to ask, before shrinking back at the looks all of the others shot her. "Right, priorities. Just tell me they aren't a microscopic, yet sociopathic race of alien dictators that function as the advance heralds of a bunch of planet destroying monsters."

Melissa had undergone a strange experience somewhat recently. You should listen to her accounting of it.

(They are scavengers.) I explained simply. (They mostly steal other ships and use them until they are broken down. But I do not believe that this is one of theirs either. I do not believe this ship is functioning. There are no engine sounds, and the ship appears to be using emergency lighting.)

"Okay," Marco said. "So we're on a damaged Andalite ship. Why? How? And where is everyone? I don't know about anyone else, but I'm pretty sure I never said beam me up, Scotty."

"Neither did Kirk." Melissa put in. "They always mess that up. No one ever actually-" Again, the looks made her shrink. "Okay okay, priorities, broken ship, I get it."

"Ax," Jake asked through gritted teeth. "Why would we be transported up into a damaged Andalite ship? And how?"

(I have no idea, Prince Jake.) I admitted. "But if we are here, there must be a reason for it."

It was Tobias who spoke up then, his thought-speak voice rather hopeful. (Do you think this is the start of the rescue? Could this ship be part of the fleet that was coming to Earth to kick the Yeerks off our planet?)

"If it is," Marco pointed out while looking around at all of the damage. "This is not exactly an encouraging start. None of this makes sense anyway. None of it. Since when would the Andalites even know about us? And could they even do this transport thing? Not to knock your species, Ax, but seriously? There is sense, and then there is this, and the two are in completely different time zones."

"Well that's because you don't have all the facts." Another voice said quietly from nearby. My stalks turned that way, to find a human woman who looked as familiar as she did not. She looked as she had the last time we had seen her, and yet, I was still accustomed to seeing her as a much younger person, the age of my other friends.

"Cassie!" Rachel exclaimed, rushing to embrace the girl who had been her best friend before she had become the Ellimist's assistant. "You're here!" The two were hugging, which I had long ago learned to be an expression of love and trust, similar to the way Andalites will intertwine tail blades.

"I'm here." Cassie nodded, finally extricating herself, though she smiled fondly at her old friend. "And now, so are you."

"You brought us here?" Jake was staring, and I thought he might ask for a hug next if one didn't present itself. "Why? What does the Ellimist want?"

"He wants to give you a chance." Cassie said slowly, as though taking the time to choose her words for fear of saying something that she wasn't supposed to. "He wants to give you a chance to fix what was broken."

"What does that even mean?" Marco demanded. "We're supposed to fix Andalite problems now too? Where are we? Is this the ship that was coming to save us? Where are all the Andalites?"

"Yes." Cassie nodded to him. "This was the ship that was coming to Earth to assess the situation."

"Assess the situation?!" Marco blew up, clearly not understanding. "The situation is we're as screwed as this ship!"

"Cassie…" Rachel was looking at one of the jagged holes in the wall. "What caused all this damage? What happened to this ship, and where is everyone?"

Cassie's face turned sorrowful, and I could tell that in spite of her joy in seeing her friends, she hated being the one to say this. "They didn't make it."

"What do you mean, they didn't make it?" Rachel put her hand against the edge of the broken wall. "Cassie, what happened to this ship? What happened to the ship that was coming to help save us?" There was an edge in her voice that seemed to indicate that she already knew the truth, but desperately wanted Cassie to have a different answer.

It was a wish that would go unfulfilled.

After a long pause, Cassie let out a slow sigh and raised her gaze to her old friend. "The Veleek, Rachel. The morphing cube made it strong, and it chased the morphing energy all the way out here, and attacked this ship. No one survived."


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks, guys! Glad you're still reading... or rather, reading again. And I'm glad you still like Melissa fitting in with the others.

This needed to be an Ax book, mostly because I've already written the view points of all the others, and I always thought alternating Ax and Tobias through most of the series was kind of dumb and hurt the development of both characters.

The change from 'snow cold' to 'space cold' was a simple thing to jump to when I decided that Ax was the narrator for this book instead of Marco. Which of course means that Marco has narration duties for the next book... but I'm getting ahead of myself. And of course, the plot for this book had to change anyway, since Rachel and Cassie already took care of the Venber way back when Rachel was on the Yeerk ship in The Solution.

So, changes abound! Let's see how many, shall we?

Chapter Two

I do not believe that I am yet capable of imagining what Rachel must have felt in that moment. Sometime earlier, she had made the choice to use the Veleek, an all but unstoppable alien creature altered by the Yeerks to hunt the energy that was given off by morphing, in a desperate plan to stop another of our enemies. David had indeed been stopped. The Veleek creature had been sent away, chasing the Escafil device, which is what grants the morphing ability to begin with. It is what the humans inadequately call 'the blue box'.

Rachel's choice had been the correct one. Summoning the Veleek and using its power to stop David was still the only solution that had been available.

And yet… to learn that a ship full of my people had been slaughtered by that beast was staggering. My weight shifted to the side as I slumped myself against the wall, all four of my legs feeling like they were about to give out. (All… all of them?) I managed to ask, unable to keep the tremor out of the thought-speak. Surely someone had survived. Surely I could have just… one of my own species, one person who would understand me, who wouldn't be confused by the smallest, simplest detail from my own world, someone to perform the daily rituals with. Surely I didn't have to be alone anymore, not when this ship had been so close.

Before I knew it, Cassie's hands had cupped both sides of my face. I turned my stalk-eyes inward so that I was looking at her with all four eyes. I wanted to see every detail as she answered me.

Yet, I didn't need to hear the answer. I could see it within the sorrow and pain of her gaze. This was not an answer I wanted to hear. Before she could speak, I pushed myself back. (No.) I said flatly. (The Ellimist is wrong. You are wrong. There is someone still alive. Someone would have survived. Someone would have.)

Cassie's mouth opened to speak, but I wasn't listening. Casting my eyes every which direction, I saw only pity and sorrow from my friends, where there should have been determination to find the survivor that had obviously been missed. (There is a survivor.) I declared, meeting their doubting expressions with certainty. (And I will find them.)

(Ax-Man…) Tobias was the only one who didn't look as though he pitied me, though only because it was rather difficult for his hawk form to change expression. (I don't think you should set yourself-)

I didn't pay attention beyond that. Turning, I ignored all of their words and started to gallop off down the corridor. They were wrong. They were absolutely wrong. There was a survivor, at least one. I wouldn't be alone anymore. I would find them, someone who understood me. I would find another Andalite.

My friends, and they were my friends even if they didn't understand why I had to do this or how I felt, shouted after me. They were trying to follow, but my four legs made me faster than their two.

Except for Tobias. Narrow though the confines of the corridor were, he was able to catch up with me with his wings.

He did, however, seem utterly exhausted. (Ax! Just wait a minute!) Landing roughly on a metal supply crate, his small form staggered to the side and nearly fell off of it. Quickly, I sent my tail forward and used the bit just before the blade to brace him. (I do not wish to hear more of Cassie's mistake.) I informed him curtly. (I wish to find the survivors of this ship.)

(Ax,) Tobias managed to right himself and glared at me. Again, in his defense, I do not believe it was intentional. Glaring was all his hawk eyes were capable of. (How many times have you known the Ellimist to be wrong? Cassie's not guessing here, man. I just don't want you to set yourself up for more… bad.)

(The Ellimist is not perfect.) I insisted. It was irrational, and nothing we had thus seen lent any credence to the idea that he would make a mistake of this magnitude. But something I had realized over my time on Earth is that knowing something and believing it were two different things. I knew the Ellimist was right, that all of my people on this ship had been killed. But I did not believe it. I didn't want to believe it. I believed I could find one survivor, just one.

It was a selfish, terrible thought, unworthy of a true Andalite Warrior. I was being a child, even less than an Aristh, a cadet. I wanted there to be a survivor so that I wouldn't be alone, and I didn't care that that would mean another of my people was stranded on Earth with no way home. In that moment, I didn't care or think about what that would mean for that other Andalite. All I knew, was that I was so very tired of being the only one of my kind other than Visser Three within the solar system.

(Trust me, buddy,) Tobias promised, (if there are any survivors, we will find them. But can you name anything the Ellimist has been wrong about? Maybe things we've disagreed with, sure. But factually wrong?)

(He is wrong about this.) I said flatly.

Tobias met my gaze for another moment. I sensed that he wanted to say something else, wanted to prepare me for the inevitable disappointment. Instead, he finally dipped his head in acknowledgment. (Okay.)

By that point, the others had caught up. Seeing Prince Jake, I felt ashamed. What had my outburst and running away accomplished? I pondered quite briefly on why Cassie hadn't simply teleported them after us. It was well within her ability now. We had seen her do so already. But then I realized it was likely against some arbitrary rule of the Ellimist. The thought made me want to lash my tail at something.

But it was the next thought I had that truly angered me. (Why now?) I demanded, turning my attention to the girl who had once been a part of this team. (Why would the Ellimist have us brought here, to this ship, after it was too late? Why not earlier? Why wouldn't he give us an opportunity to save my people? What game is he playing?)

For a moment, I saw the old Cassie there. She looked just as angry as I felt, just as helpless, bound by the rules of the near-omnipotent creature she served. "It's not a game."

"Then what is it?" Prince Jake asked. I could see the tension in him. It was understandable. Cassie and he had been close, before the incident that had resulted in her current situation. Clearly, a large part of him wanted to treat her as a friend and confidant. And yet, she was also the Ellimist's assistant, and had been given such incredible power and responsibility, even more than any other human could understand. Conceivably even more than some Andalites could understand.

"I'm so sorry, Ax. But it's true. The Andalites on this ship were killed." Cassie repeated her earlier words with an apologetic look toward me. I was tempted to speak up again, but held my peace. I would hear what she had to say.

Once she was assured that I would not interrupt, our former teammate continued. "But, this ship wasn't just assessing the Earth situation on its own. It was on its way to collect a small group of Andalites that have been stranded at the edge of Earth's-I mean, our solar system."

"Wait, wait, wait." Marco interrupted. "Are you telling me the Andalites have had a team here, within spitting distance of Earth, the whole time? Well what the hell have they been doing, inventing all new ways to be completely useless?!"

That brought me a few steps toward him, and I had to force my tail not to rise. (My people are not useless.) I informed Marco tensely.

There was as much anger in Marco's glare as he looked at me as I felt in myself. His mouth opened to speak, but one of my stalk eyes picked up Prince Jake shaking his head at him. Marco backed down, waving a hand. "Whatever, tell us more about this convenient Andalite brigade."

"It's not a brigade." Cassie shook her head. "They're just a small research team. They were testing a new Z-Space Jump Drive, one that would allow the Andalites to travel ten times faster through Z-Space than they do now."

"That… would bring the Andalites to Earth a lot faster." Melissa put in from where she was standing somewhat behind Marco. She brought her arms up in what I've come to realize is a human display of enthusiasm. "Which is really all kinds of yay!"

"The drive malfunctioned." Cassie informed us.

"Aw, boo." Melissa deflated, arms falling to her sides.

"Malfunctioned how?" Prince Jake asked. "And what does that have to do with this ship and the Veleek?"

"The drive brought their experimental scout ship as far as the edges of our solar system." Cassie explained. "But then it refused to power down. They couldn't make it jump again, but it wouldn't turn off either. It just keeps cycling up over and over, like it's about to jump into Z-Space, but it never does."

"So their engine's crapping out and keeps revving up but won't turn over." Prince Jake said, frowning. "Wouldn't the Yeerks have noticed something like that?"

"The experimental drive is stealthed." Cassie replied. "The Yeerks won't notice until and way too late. And by then…"

"By then, what, Cass?" Rachel put a hand out toward her old friend. "What's going to happen?"

"Think of the experimental Z-Space Engine that keeps revving up as a car continually spilling gas all around itself." Our old friend explained quietly. "It just keeps building up that energy. It's putting all of that effort out but the ship isn't taking advantage."

Marco nodded. "Flooding the tank."

Cassie was quiet for a moment before she went on. Her gaze was on me, and I could not look away. "Then there's this ship. It's still going that way on emergency power. The engines aren't doing much, so little you can't even tell that they're on. But there's still enough acceleration to get this ship to that spot within the next six hours. And the second the energy from this ship hits the energy that the experimental Z-Space engine is giving off…"

(There will be a catastrophic reaction.) I said, and she nodded.

"How catastrophic are we talking, here?" Rachel demanded. "I mean, on a scale of hangnail to it's prom and Marco is your only choice."

"All I heard was prom and that I'm a choice." Marco replied. "Sorry, feather butt, looks like I'm moving on in."

(My butt's got more than feathers.) Tobias shot back. (You wanna see?)

(Please!) I couldn't help but cry out. (As curious as I am as to what exactly a prom is and how one might taste, this is important. Please, focus.)

"Uhh," Prince Jake looked at me, and then shrugged. "Yeah, what he said. Focusing would be good." Then he focused on Cassie, who looked as if she was having some visual problems. She could not stop blinking, and her eyes appeared to be leaking. "Cassie?" Prince Jake's hand went out to her. "What's wrong?"

"I just miss you guys." She answered, blinking a few more times before going on. "So you have to stop this ship before it reaches the other one, or big boom. Big Z-Space boom."

"What exactly would that do?" Marco frowned, his attention fully on the situation then. "I mean, would Earth be…"

"Earth itself would be fine." Cassie answered. "But it would damage Z-Space itself. Think of our solar system as an island. The Z-Space surrounding it is the ocean. If this explosion happens, it's going to create a… sort of a tidal wave effect all around our little island. Anything approaching through Z-Space will be violently shoved away. Nothing will be able to get through."

"So the Andalites couldn't get here?" Melissa asked for all of us. "For how long?"

Cassie went quiet until Prince Jake spoke up. "How long, Cassie?"

She answered softly, "At least five years."

"Five years?!" Marco exploded. "We can't hold out for five years, that's insane! We need the Andalite fleet here yesterday, not half a decade from now!"

(That's why we're here.) Tobias put in. (To stop that from happening. Isn't it?)

"Yes. The Ellimist believes you can stop it." I could tell that there was much more that Cassie wanted to say, but she was limited by the rules the Ellimist and his opposing force, the Crayak, had laid out for themselves and their representatives. She could only tell us what she was allowed to.

"So how do we?" Prince Jake asked, directing his attention to both Cassie and myself. "How do we stop this ship from reaching ground zero? Or whatever. We just turn it off, right?"

(If the engines have been so heavily damaged, and I still cannot detect their motion, then we would need to reach the bridge to disable them or divert this ship's course.)

"Okay, two new questions." Marco held up one finger after the other. "How far are we from the bridge, and is that Veleek thing still lurking around waiting for us to morph?"

"You're on the opposite end of the ship." Cassie answered the first question quietly. "That was part of the agreement with Crayak. You could be given a chance to stop this, but only if you had to put in as much effort as possible."

"Of course it was." Rachel seethed. "Both of those stupid god damn…"

Prince Jake interrupted. "What about the other part, about the Veleek?"

"There's good and bad news there." Cassie explained. "The good news is that the Veleek itself has moved on. The bad news is that it left… offspring."

"Wait." Rachel shook her head. "The Veleek was a whole swarm of creatures. How does it have offspring?"

"Smaller swarms." The answer came with a shrug. "Several smaller, weaker swarms split off from the main body. They're somewhere in this ship."

"How much weaker?" Marco asked. "I mean, fly swatter or oh my god we need another whale?"

Smiling very faintly at the memory, Cassie answered, "To a human body, they're probably just as deadly. But they can't get through the metal of the ship. And the swarms themselves are each only about as large as a heavy dog."

"What about morphing energy?" Prince Jake winced. "I mean, are we going to have them all over us every time we try to morph?"

"They can only sense the morphing energy within a short distance." Cassie tried to assure us. "As long as you're not actively morphing within, say, fifty feet of them, you should be fine. Just be careful."

Prince Jake nodded. "Right, so Ax leads us to the bridge, we avoid the mini-Veleeks, and turn the ship off. Oh yeah, and we have to do that within the next six hours. Anything else?"

Receiving no response for a moment, all of us looked to our old companion. I let a single stalk-eye keep twisting around to check behind us while focusing my other three eyes on her. Finally, she let out a sigh and turned slightly to her left. As she did so, a doorway slid open. "There are two more things. The ship has almost no power. A lot of it has been opened to space, so you're going to have to take detours. Some parts are going to be cold, very, very cold. And other parts, the ones that the engines have been venting into, are going to be hotter than the Sahara."

"Great, wild temperature variations." Marco grumbled. "Just what we needed on top of everything else." He paused then before sighing. "You said there was another thing, didn't you?" He sounded as though he really didn't want to ask. "Please tell me that the other thing is that there's a stranded pizza delivery guy up there and he really needs us to polish off his extras so he doesn't have to carry them around anymore. Please tell me that? Please?"

"Sorry, Marco." Cassie turned and walked through the now open hatchway. "In here."

First Rachel, then Jake, then Tobias, then Melissa, Marco, and finally I followed Cassie into the room. I looked around and was more confused than before. (This is the medical lab, where healers tend to the wounded who are too injured to morph, or lack the ability. Why are we in here?)

Cassie explained, "The Andalites have been installing Gleet Bio-Filters throughout their ships at random checkpoints."

The other Animorphs already knew what those were, I didn't need to explain. The scanners would detect any DNA that was not registered, and would purge it.

"Let me guess," Marco cut in, "that's one thing that hasn't malfunctioned." At her nod, he sighed. "Of course it is."

"So what are we going to do about it?" Rachel asked. "I kinda doubt humans are in the accepted list."

I was just as confused as the others, for a moment. Then I realized, and I aimed a single stalk-eye at Cassie in shock. When I saw her nod at me, I knew that my realization was correct. (You mean to…) I couldn't make myself say it.

"What?" Prince Jake demanded. "What is going on? How are we going to get past the bio-filter without being Andalites?"

"You're not, Jake." Cassie answered him. Her hand reached out to pick up a vial of Andalite blood from its cooling unit. "Medical labs are full of DNA. The only way you guys are getting through the bio-filters, is by becoming the one thing it will let through."

"You're going to have to morph Andalites."


End file.
